Do you have a “grabber” for your display at a community event?

Last month one of my clients went to a health expo, and I had the opportunity to go and help out. Amy has a business called Tree of Life Health Coaching. When she purchased her space at the expo, it came with a table and a couple of chairs. When we walked in, there were a lot of people at the expo, but most of them seemed to be grazing for free stuff (SWAG). Weirdly enough, it was a health expo, but lots of businesses were giving out candy! Still it seemed that many of the people who came to peruse the booths were just there to check on health concerns!

Amy had made gluten free, dairy free, and soy free chocolate chip cookies to hand out in her booth. The plan was for her to chat with people as they tasted the cookies (which are really good! — recipe is here.) But when we got there only 1 out of every 5-6 people was stopping for a sample. The booth was set up on a very wide aisle (probably 16 or 18 feet) — and it was hard to draw people in because the aisle was not crowded enough that people had to walk close to the booths.

I went out to the aisle, and positioned myself perpendicular to the table, and started talking to people that were coming by. Because of the traffic flow of the room — most people were coming from the left side at the booth, so I stood in the aisle at the right — and started making eye contact with the people coming by, greeting them, and asking if they wanted to taste a cookie. Once I got them up to the booth, Amy did a great job with her “elevator speech” — telling them what she did in 60 seconds or less — and telling them enough that they might want to sign up for her mailing list (to get the recipe for the cookies) — or to win a health coaching session! At the end of the day Amy thanked me for “grabbing” people and helping start conversations with them.

When you have a display at a community event — you absolutely need someone to be “behind” the table — and generally I think it’s good if that person is you or someone who can speak for you about the business. However if you’re not giving away expensive SWAG – it’s always hard to draw people in — so make sure you also take a “grabber”!